1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a filling assembly for a syringe which is specifically adapted to be used by sightless people to the extent that an indicator assembly is associated therewith which produces an audible sound to indicate the desired and accurate amount of medicine or liquid being passed from a liquid or medicine container into a syringe mounted on the subject assembly.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In situations where people have certain medical problems requiring that they give themselves accurate doses of medicine there was a continuing problem to accurately transfer the amount of medicine from a conventional medicine container into the syringe. It is important of course that the amount of medicine being injected is accurate. This task is difficult enough for patients with no sight impediments. However, when a patient is sightless or has some type of visual or sight impediment the task becomes even more difficult or even impossible. The present invention is directed to a metering and filling assembly assigned to provide the proper amount of liquid medication from a medicine container into a conventional hypodermic syringe. The structure of such a preferred assembly enables anyone, whether sight impaired or not, to obtain the proper dosage of medication when transferring such medication from a container to a syringe.
Attempts have been made in the prior art to overcome this problem and provide some type of accurate structure which allows a sightless or sight impaired person to accurately transfer the amount of medication to a syringe. However, a vast majority of such attempts, as evidenced by the structure disclosed in the following U.S. Patents are generally overly complicated to the extent that a sightless person has difficulty in operating and/or setting up such structures to accomplish the desired result.
The patent to Maki, U.S. Pat. No. 4,252,159, discloses a dosage device including an elongated substantially flat body on which a syringe is mounted by means of upstanding substantially Y-shaped brackets disposed in spaced apart relation to one another and extending upwardly from a flat exposed surface of the body. An adjustable stop member is provided by being threadedly engaged or mating with an upstanding internally threaded block. Audible sounds are produced by means of an irregularly shaped knob upon each full, 360.degree. rotation by virtue of the knob engaging externally located upstanding lands or like objects. The engagement and sound between the aforementioned knob and the lands depends upon a number of factors which may include flexibility of the base itself or sufficient "play" between the threaded engagement as mentioned above such that the outwardly projected portion of the knob may in fact pass over and in engagement with the upstanding lands. Maki does not show any type of specifically calibrated threaded structure which cooperates with an indicator means such that the passage of one thread beyond the indicator means while being in engagement therewith produces a click for each thread passing the indicator means. Further, there is no showing of a calibration such that each thread producing an audible sound results in one unit volume of liquid capable of being dispensed from a medicine container by movement of the plunger of the syringe.
The patent to Blackman, 4,466,426, discloses a syringe with an actinic ray blocking stripe. A structural provision is included which provides an audible sound upon a plunger being withdrawn from the barrel of a syringe for purposes of filling the syringe. There is no teaching in this structure of a separate mounting base or platform on which a medicine container is mounted along with the syringe such that a specific calibration exists between the threaded engagement of components of a metering means and the specific structural adaptation of an indicator means such that one thread passing by the metering means is indicative, through the production of an audible sound, of one unit volume of medicine capable of being dispensed from the medicine container.
The patent to Strong, U.S. Pat. No. 4,883,101, discloses a filling device for filling an injection syringe which incorporates a sound indicator which may be mechanical, electrical or an electronic sound device. The filling device of this invention mounts a gear which is movable one gear tooth at a time to align a linear gear to which the syringe is mounted. A spring loaded ball bearing is biased against a gear wheel and produces a distinctly audible clicking sound when the gear moves a single notch. These clicking sounds can be counted by a user when the attached syringe holder moves and will accurately indicate the amount of liquid medicine drawn into the syringe. This device, while operating on a sound or audible signal bases is complicated to the extent that a number of movable components including a plurality of rotating gears associated with a linear gear are incorporated in order to allegedly fill the syringe in an accurate manner.
Other patents, set forth hereinafter disclose structures which do not operate in a manner utilizing audible sound. To the contrary, such devices present in the prior art rely on feel or touch rather than incorporating a structure which produces a sound type signal. Such patents include Montada, 4,489,766, disclosing a device for filling a syringe with medicine and is specifically adapted to be used by people with a sight impairment. The device has an elongated body with a recess for receiving a syringe. The body has a gauge recess adjacent to a position where the syringe plunger would be located thereby allowing the syringe plunger to be fully extracted. A plurality of retractable spacers of different thicknesses are located in the gauge recess to limit the extraction of the recess plunger and this gauge controls the quantity of medicine drawn into the syringe.
The patent to Wright, U.S. Pat. No. 4,219,055, discloses a syringe filling aid having a body with a bottle holding means at one end and a hilt engaging portion at the other end for engaging the hilt of a syringe when the needle of this syringe is in the bottle. The hilt engaging portion has a notch in which the syringe can be rested and a plunger stop assembly adjustably fixable to the body for limiting movement to a predetermined dose setting. The structure of the Wright patent discloses no sound or audible signal generating means to indicate the proper dosage being transferred.
Another patent which rely on mechanical components for aiding the sightless or those with sight impaired conditions include Wright, U.S. Pat. No. 3,840,011, disclosing an instrument for transferring specific amounts of fluid from a container to a syringe rely on mechanical means to indicate to the operator the proper dosage being transferred.
On a lesser interest of the patents to Phillips, U.S. Pat. No. 4,758,233, disclosing an applicator to inject a medicine or substance into an animal. Tint, U.S. Pat. No. 3,128,765, discloses a hypodermic syringe and dose dispenser which does not include any type of audible signal for indicating proper dosage transfer, but which does include an elongated externally threaded shaft operating as part of the syringe component for forcing a fluid medicine out of the barrel of the syringe.
While the above noted patents are all directed to structures which attempt to overcome problems associated with dispensing proper dosage of medicine and more particularly to the transferring of proper fluid medicine amounts from a container to a syringe structure, none include an efficient and operable device which the sightless or sight impaired can rely on in terms of accuracy and ease of use and particularly wherein an audible signal generating means serves as the proper indicator to measure proper dosage amount.